Vault Omega
by Foxy'sGirl
Summary: Vault Omega was originally in charge of overseeing all of the social experiments in the other vaults nationwide, until the blast knocked out all of the communications equipment. A young explorer is sent out to reconnect with the other vaults, unaware of the boiling social unrest and dangers of the wastes.


Strength: 5

Perception: 7

Endurance: 6

Charisma: 5

Intelligence: 7

Agility: 5

Luck: 5

Tag Skills: Science, Lockpick, Speech

00000

"Millie. Millie!" I can hear the voice floating down the metal hallway, becoming less and less of an echo as the speaker gets closer. The bobby pin snaps off in the lock and I almost panic, as I grapple another one out of my pocket and shove it carefully into the lock, adjusting the tumblers as delicately as I can manage with my flathead.

"Millie!" A woman's voice joins the first and I move faster, wiggling the bobby pin until there's a satisfying shift and the lock sags open with a click. I grab the 10mm pistol and shove it into my vault regulation jump-suit, wiggling until it hides itself in the waistband of my underwear. For a second there, I almost thought I'd have to leave without it.

I tuck the small stack of bottle caps and the single stimpak in my pocket, before shutting the safe as quietly as I can and standing up.

You've lost karma.

"Millie!" The voice is recognizable now, and my father sounds beyond peeved. Quickly, I look for a place to hide, but the Overseer's office is more of a place to be seen than to take cover, and I end up sitting down as casually as I can in the plush red velvet chair and putting my boots up on the mahogany desk.

My father comes puffing around the corner, all red cheeks and shiny balding head, and I grin cheekily, hoping that it hides my throbbing heart. What if they can see the hard line of the pistol's grip through my jump-suit. I can feel the cool metal sliding as I start to sweat.

"Young lady, get out of your grandfather's chair and get upstairs, you're missing your briefing!" I glare and cross my arms, letting my feet thump lazily to the carpet.

"Sheesh, I was just getting a last sit in a comfortable chair." He frowns, and I stand up grudgingly.

"Stop being so melodramatic, it's not your last anything. You're going on a quick trip to survey the other vaults, not going into battle." I scoff. He thinks I'm scared.

"Come on, what do you think I'm scared? I'm not. Everything up there is dead anyway, I'd be shocked if I see anything bigger than a radroach." I bluster, trying not to think about the gun. They won't be letting me go if I were anything but brave and sure of myself, but I can't stay here any longer.

I think about my eighteenth birthday two days from now and the genetically advantageous breeding partner that my own grandfather, the overseer, would assign to me. I cringe. Better radiation poisoning out on the wastes than that.

"Then don't be this way. Get up to your briefing before they take you off of the mission team." He sounds harsh, but I know he isn't. He's worried. It's going to be the first time in my entire life that I'm more than an eighth of a mile away from his protection, and he's just…concerned. It doesn't make it any less annoying, but does make his hovering more tolerable somehow to remember he's only doing his fatherly job. I smirk and walk off toward the hallway as normally as I can with a gun jabbing me in the hip and perpetually noisy bottle caps trying to jingle in my pocket.

"Love you too, dad." He puts his hand on my shoulder and walks beside me up the stairs.

00000

"…Now, the entrance to this vault is five hundred feet from the top of the mountain, so you'll come out onto sort of a ledge, we don't know how far the road has deteriorated, so we're sending climbing equipment that we request you store in the hollowed out rock, here." A nervous engineer has been talking for what feels like forever about getting out of the vault and I stifle a yawn. My mother pats my knee, looking every bit as anxious as my dad is acting and a sigh, determined to at least look like I'm paying attention.

"From there you'll all follow your individual maps, that I programmed into your pip boys along with pre-war population and geographic information, to help you avoid distractions or delays. Those of you going to zones 1-8 and 10-20 have schematics for a motorcycle as well as directions to every government protected gasoline reserve along the route…" He trails off nervously, looking over at my grandfather. "Anything else you think I should mention, Overseer?"

"That will be quite enough, Ralph, I think we've bored these kids enough." My grandfather pushes himself to his feet, looking way too big for his lab-coat and way too old for his enthusiasm. "They know the drill, they chose this mission, what? Three years ago. I remember my Millie telling me she wanted to go, and thinking she was damn near crazy." I blush at everyone's looks of worry, and resent that I'm the only one being treated like a child.

Just because I'm the only girl being sent, and the Overseer's granddaughter, doesn't mean I need any special treatment. I duck my head through the rest of his speech, and am the first to get up and grab my mission packet from the steel counter at the back of the room. Holding the crisp white envelope feels like clutching possibility. Vaults 25 through forty are all mine to explore, I'm going to be the first one to look at all those social experiments in over 50 years.

I'm a modern day Cortez looking in on worlds no one has seen since the blast turned out all the lights with a click.

I'm the start of a new age of Explorers.

00000

It seems like hours later when everyone is satisfied with outfitting us and giving up supplies, and the vault is ready to let us go. My mother sneaks in one last hug and I can't help but hug her back as the huge vault door grinds and clicks, releasing a smell that's somewhere between oil and a fresh sunny smell I've only ever imagined. I can feel my lungs opening up as the draft of fresh air invades the room.

My dad gives me a pat on the back and a kiss on the cheek, before tucking a wad of ancient pre-war money into my hand.

"It's not much, but it used to be a lot." He offers and I smile. Maybe the other vault-dwellers will enjoy it's quaintness or something.

"I'll see you soon, dad. Really. And mom, I expect you to make some of my favorite soup, Ok? I want it my first night back." The request makes her smile and I grin back, covering all my nerves as I give her one last hug and adjust my backpack's straps on my shoulders. It seems heavy with MRE's and a water purifier, but at the same time not heavy enough when I think about the long journey ahead.

The door unlocks with a final echoing clang, and the whole crowd gasps as sunlight pours through the cracks.

"It can't be," gasps Ralph, the earnest engineer, "When that door was sealed, it was 300 feet underground."

00000

**AN: Hey, I really hope that those of you who read to the end stop to leave a review, it would be much appreciated. This is my first story in this fandom, and I can say I'm more than a bit nervous, I hope you guys like it! **


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